How to host Red, a customizable Discord bot

Red is a large, general bot with moderation, music and many community-made add-ons called cogs. You install the cogs from inside Discord, so you do not need to touch the server's files.

Before you start

1. Create the bot and copy its token: How to create a Discord bot and get its token. Red reads message text, so switch on Message Content Intent on the Bot page.
2. Invite it to your server: How to invite your Discord bot to a server.
3. Copy your Discord user ID (Developer Mode, then right-click your name and Copy User ID). You will be the bot's owner.

Choose the type and fill in the settings

1. On a new bot server click Edit Server Type on Overview and choose Red.
2. Open Settings, Game Settings and fill in Discord Bot Token, Command Prefix and Owner.
3. Open Console and start the server. The first start installs Red and can take several minutes.

First commands

With your prefix (for example .), type .help in a channel the bot can see. As the owner you can use the owner-only commands. Red's own documentation lists every command and how to load, install and update cogs.

Good to know

• Give Red at least 1 GB of memory; more if you load many cogs.
• Red stores its data in its own files. Use the panel's Backups before big changes.
• If it stops right away, read the console: Why your Discord bot keeps stopping.
• Music through Red depends on the cogs you load and on the music sources, which change over time. See Discord music bot not playing: fixes.